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Title: The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game : Roleplaying Game by Charles Ryan, Ross Isaacs, Christian Moore, Owen K.C. Stephens, Rateliff, Steven Long ISBN: 0-7869-1996-5 Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Pub. Date: 23 October, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.48 (25 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Begging for an Expansion
Comment: Let's just say I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn't a system for handling chronic upper respiratory infections.
This is the d20 system role-playing game for the Wheel of Time system, at least for the first six novels...the character stats given are as of the end of Lord of Chaos. It offers a more-or-less complete game system that's surprisingly good.
Included are entirely new core (i.e. 20-level classes) and prestige classes, such as the algai'd'siswai (Aiel spear-fighter), armsman, wanderer, woodsman, noble, initiate, and wilder, which are more appropriate to the world than those listed in the D&D PHB. They use the standard skill and feat system. There are two playable races, humans and Ogier (the big guy on the cover); humans get an extra skill point and an extra background feat, in a fashion similar to the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
Feats are mostly standard, but include the various channeling feats and Lost Feats, which are limited by the need to take a precursor feat before taking the real feat, which should keep them rare. Equipment is mostly normal, with mention of power-wrought swords and other wondrous items, such as masterpiece weapons and armor (like masterwork, but better).
Channeling...ah, channeling. As others have mentioned, it's put in as a spell slot system, but the available slots represent a safe limit. You can overchannel all you want, but sooner or later it'll cost you. The weaves listed have variable effects based on the slot used, which is nice. They have a decent way of handling linking and angreal and sa'angreal, but I'll get more into that later. And, for male channelers, there's the joy of the Madness mechanic.
Included are character descriptions for most of the major hero characters (Rand, Mat, Thom, Lan, Moiraine, etc.), as well as MM-style descriptions of the various beasts and exotic animals found in the setting. Sadly, no Forsaken are depicted, yet. One will also find standard rules, some setting information, and advice on running the game.
On the whole, I'm quite impressed. It's a nice and coherent system, and works better than I thought. I can't find much to complain about, other than some minor quibbles...such as some of the character write-ups being wrong (some people not having abilities that they demonstrated in the novels, or equipment, etc.).
What I'd like, of course, is an expansion or two...obviously, they'll have to do one the farther the storyline goes. I think that short prestige classes for each of the Ajahs might be nice, and lists of where Portal Stones and the Ogier Ways are would be very helpful (aside from GM fiat).
But, what I'd really like is an Age of Legends expansion...with all sorts of lost weaves and feats for item creation. Gosh, that'd be cool.
Rating: 5
Summary: Best Book-Game Conversion
Comment: I went out and bought the Wheel of Time rpg today. What is the Wheel of Time you ask? It's a series of books(they're up to book 9) written by Robert Jordan. If you've never read them, I highly reccomned it. The series is incredibly addicting. I've re-read the series at least 4 times already and thinking about re-reading it again (Eye of the World-Bk 1).
After my first read through I must say that I am impressed. The people at Wizards of the Coast did an incredibly good job at capturing the flavor of Robert Jordan's world. All the classes, skills and such match perfectly with the books.
Being a d20 product, everything runs pretty much like Dungeons and Dragons (no surprise there). The major diference between this and DnD is how they dealt with using the One Power (magic). Again, I'm impressed. The use of the One Power would have had to be, in my opinion, the toughest thing about translating the books into a game but they did a great job.
The rules in general seem a little daunting at first but after reading them a couple of times, it makes total sense.
A possible complaint people might have with the rpg book (besides the cover) is the price. I agree it's a hefty price tag for 300+ pages; however, I can honestly tell you that even though it's pricey, you defenitely get an extremely well made game system. This is one of, if not the best, book-game conversion I have ever seen and if you've ever read the Wheel of Time series, you know that is no easy task.
Rating: 4
Summary: Now that is prestige
Comment: I really enjoyed the flavor of this campaign setting. I am a fan of the books, even if they do drag on a bit later in the series. I have little intention of playing in robert Jordan's world, but the ideas this book presents make it a valuble addition to my library.
The two best ideas in the book are charater creation and presitge classes.
The Prestige classes are not just a collection of powers, they form sociteies which dominate the world. This is what these classes should be. That said some are unnessarly difficult to get into (4 ranks in balance ???) but they are essential to society and most characters will aim to join these elite groups.
The character creation process is lovely, requiring the human's free starting feat to be dependant on the area of the world where they grew up. Additionally each reason has favored skills that are treated as class skills. These add real impact to a charaters personality.
The game uses new classes well designed to fit with the setting, nobles who have bard like inspiration and favors to call in.
Both trained and wild channlers and wanderers instead of thieves.
The world itself lends to low magic campaigns, with any magic item (i.e. ter'angreal & angreal) being very rare and monsters so rare they are considered imaginary. The book lists the main charaters stats of course, which make intresting reading. The city and country descriptions are well detailed and full of flavor. The channeling magic system is complex and limited at the same time, and while it works well with the books I am uncertain how it would play. My primary irritation with the book is the amount of reprinted material from the core rule books, such as feats, skills and combat rules.
While low magic is stressed the PC's could become movers and shakers of the world's politics. If I was to run a campaign it would avoid the dragon reborn, mabey by 300 years, and the book gives a few guidelines for playing in other times.
The channeling magic system is complex and limited at the same time, and while it works well with the flavor of the books I am uncertain how it would play. A comprensive list of each weaves would have been nice. There are 52 total, 15 are lost (only known by forsaken or dragon reborn)
Overall The Wheel of Time is a good source book for ideas and methods, but has the flaws of any game based on a book.
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Title: The Wheel of Time: Prophecies of the Dragon by Aaron Acevedo, Evan Jamieson, Michelle Lyons, James Maliszewski, Charles Ryan, Paul Sudlow ISBN: 0786926643 Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Pub. Date: 27 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: New Spring (A Wheel of Time Prequel Novel) by Robert Jordan ISBN: 0765306298 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 06 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Lord of Chaos (The Wheel of Time, Book 6) by Robert Jordan ISBN: 0812513754 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1995 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Great Hunt (The Wheel of Time, Book 2) by Robert Jordan ISBN: 0812517725 Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates Pub. Date: 01 October, 1992 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Shadow Rising (The Wheel of Time, Book 4) by Robert Jordan ISBN: 0812513738 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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